Msgr. Dennis - Homily on Life and Priesthood

Msgr. Dennis Sheehan
Homily for 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
October 14, 2018

Today’s readings remind me of something I discovered some years ago. Jesus spends more words on money and tells more stories about money than any other topic. How we get money, how we think about money, whether we give money where needed are key topics if we think of ourselves as Jesus’ followers.

This Sunday, however, I am going to leave money alone. Fr. John and his collaborative staff invited me to mark two milestones I reach this year. I celebrated 80 years a while ago and gathered this week with my North American College classmates to mark 55 years since we were ordained in December of 1963.

Life and Priesthood. A brief thought on each.

“Happy Birthday,” we say. Not “Congratulations”. For men and women of faith, arriving at 80 years is not an achievement. Like birth itself, like life itself, 80 years are a gift, a grace. So this year I am more conscious than ever of giving thanks. “Eucharist”—giving thanks in faith is more than just a ritual moment. It’s a whole way of looking at life. I’m reminded here of the 90-year-old Jesuit brother. The community gathered to celebrate his life. He was the doorkeeper, their mail sorter, their sometime-cook. The Father General rose for a toast. “Ninety more years for you, brother.” The brother stood. “Thank you, Father General,” he said softly, “but why place limits on the providence of God?”

Fifty-five years as a priest. By the way, I have spent 17 of those 55 years here in Newton. First at St. Jean’s, then at Our Lady’s, and more recently at Sacred Heart. It is the longest assignment I have ever had. My friends tell me I have trouble keeping a job!

Priests and bishops and the Pope are too often headline news. The media call them “the Catholic Church”. They are not. The Catholic Church is not at the Vatican. The Catholic Church is not Pope Francis or Cardinal Sean. The Catholic Church is Our Lady’s Parish. The Catholic Church is Sacred Heart Parish. Popes and bishops and priests are called by God’s grace to serve the church, not to be the church. It is horrific and wrong that priests have molested young people and bishops knowingly looked the other way. But when I hear that “the Catholic Church” has done this, I cringe. You, brothers and sisters, in faith and baptism, are and have always been “the church”.

We priests take our faith and strength from the communities we serve. I would never have survived 55 years without the example, trust, confidence, and love of so many communities in which I have been blessed to serve. I witness today not my perseverance but your faith and your support.

A small story. Shortly after I came here, my successor in in an earlier parish called me. He was obviously rattled. “What’s with the Finance Committee,” he asked. “What’s the problem?” I inquired. “They act as if they own the place,” he wailed. “Good Lord,” I said, “it took me 12 years to get them there.” They believed and acted as they were: The church at work.

Over the years, I have turned often to the thoughts of Blessed John Henry Newman, the 19th century English cardinal, preacher and writer. He titled one of his sermons “Men, Not Angels, Ministers of the Gospel. Today I cannot celebrate being an angel. But I can give thanks for being, so often imperfectly, a minister of the gospel. The Cardinal was once asked by a news reporter, “Cardinal Newman, what do you think of the laity?” “Well,” said the Cardinal, “we’d look very funny without them.”

To quote Newman today: “Remember me then and pray for me, that in all things I may know God’s will and by God’s grace be able to accomplish them”.